General Jones of Oshawa

By Randy Russon
September 13, 2016
Tweet

Share

He is still young at age 46 yet he has spent almost half of his life behind the bench as a coach in the Ontario Hockey League.

In fact, if you include the four full seasons that he spent playing as a hard-nosed defenseman with the Soo Greyhounds, Bobby Jones has a 25-year association with the OHL.

About to enter his 22nd season as a coach in the OHL — and second as bench boss of the Oshawa Generals — Jones has forged a good reputation as a progressive student of the game that has encompassed his life for so many years.

Having been an associate or assistant coach with the Greyhounds, Brampton Battalion, Toronto St. Michael’s Majors, Sudbury Wolves and Windsor Spitfires, Jones has more than paid his dues as a right-hand man who is now the main man.

In fact, including one season as the main man behind the bench in Windsor, the 2016-2017 campaign in Oshawa will only be his third year as a head coach in the OHL — all others were served as an associate or assistant.

It speaks volumes about the years of exceptional work that Jones has put in that he has never been fired from an OHL coaching job. The moves that he has made were by choice of the personable 46-year old, who hails from picturesque Haviland Bay, which is just outside Sault Ste. Marie.

As he looks ahead to the upcoming 2016-2017 season, Jones is of the notion that Oshawa — which won the Memorial Cup in 2014-2015 and then finished in eighth place in the Eastern Conference in 2015-2016 as the Generals began a rebuild — should be a middle-of-the-pack team.

“It’s the second year of our youth movement and we have pretty much our whole lineup from last year back,” Jones told HockeyNewsNorth.com. “All of a sudden we have depth whereas last season it was tough to ice a full lineup.”

Jones credits Oshawa general manager Roger Hunt for regaining a lot of assets after the Generals traded off multiple draft picks for older players during their Memorial Cup season of 2014-2015.

“Roger has positioned us back to a point where we think we can compete to be a fourth-place team (in the Eastern Conference) this season which would give us home-ice advantage for the first-round of the playoffs. That is one of our goals as we start the season,” Jones said evenly.

After eight years and two Memorial Cup championships in Windsor, Jones has found the move to Oshawa to his liking.

“We think together as an organization and we have great fan support,” Jones relayed. “Both of my assistant coaches (Greg Nemisz and Nathan McIver) played for me, Greg when I coached in Windsor and Nate when I coached at St. Mike’s so there is that familiarity between us. Really, there’s a comfort level to the entire organization.”

The only downside for Jones in the move to Oshawa was that he left his wife and two teenage kids back in Windsor.

“It didn’t make sense for them to move to Oshawa with me last year,” Jones explained. “My wife (Paige) has a pretty-good job in Windsor and our kids (Blake and Brianna) are both still in school there.

“Other than me missing my family, hockey is hockey, whether it’s in Windsor or Oshawa.”

Meanwhile, the aforementioned Hunt, as the Generals GM, sees a good season ahead in Oshawa as the franchise celebrates 80 years in the OHL.

“We feel our depth is a strength here,” said Hunt. “Our guys last year did a fantastic job in reaching the playoffs and a lot of credit needs to go to Bob Jones and his coaching staff for getting the most out of the group.”

PHOTO: Oshawa Generals coach Bobby Jones.